Miss Adler Solves a Murder
For a mystery lover, I am sadly ignorant about Sherlock Holmes. But that doesn’t stop me from enjoying books that play on the Holmes mythology. Since I’d enjoyed earlier books from Samantha Larsen, I was intrigued by Holmes Away from Home, the first in the new Althea Adler Mysteries. I’m glad I picked it up.
The book takes us to London in the spring of 1911. Althea Adler is the daughter of Irene Adler, and she’s been raised by her mother to become a thief. She’s trying to create a life for herself as a law-abiding citizen, but when she gets a mysterious post card telling her to break into Sherlock Holmes’s safe, she doesn’t resist. What she finds inside makes her wonder what her connection to the famed detective might be.
In order to find out more, she gets herself invited to a weekend at Twickenham Towers with a couple of her friends from college, including the daughter of Dr. Watson. But when the earl is found murdered her first morning there, Althea realizes she is going to have to solve the crime herself if she ever wants to leave. Among the other guests is William, Marquess of Sheffield. He seems to have his own agenda. Can Althea trust him? Who killed the earl?
In many ways, this book reads like the pilot of a current TV show. We have the mystery of the murdered earl, and that is resolved in this book. But several other things that are introduced here are set up but left unresolved. I’m sure they are threads we will be following as the series unfolds, and I’m here for it. In fact, I already can’t wait for the next book.
After some initial set up, the book focuses in on the murder of the earl, and it is a well-done mystery. I was kept guessing as to who was involved and what exactly happened until Althea pieced it together at the end. There were plenty of twists along the way, but things made sense when we reached the end.
It helps that the characters are strong. We really got to know Althea and William here, and I really like both of them. The rest of the cast, aka the suspects, are also strong, and they made it hard to guess exactly what was going on as a result.
William is a very important part of the book. He’s a second viewpoint character. While Althea does most of the solving, William contributes as well, and I appreciated how his character developed over the course of the book. I did feel like the chemistry between the two of them was played up a bit too much, but that’s a minor complaint.
As I said, I’m already looking forward to seeing just what happens to Althea and William in the next book. If you are looking for a fun Holmes adjacent book, you’ll be glad you picked up Holmes Away from Home.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
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